The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
WOMAN FREE
BY
ELLIS ETHELMER
1893
PUBLISHED BY THE
WOMEN’S EMANCIPATION UNION
Hon. Sec.:—Mrs. WOLSTENHOLME ELMY
Buxton House, Congleton
[PRICE FIVE SHILLINGS, POST FREE]
WYMAN AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND REDHILL.
“Le philosophe, en étudiant les lois de la Nature,acquiert chaque jour la conviction que de leur violationseule naissent tous les maux dont gémit l’humanité.”
“The philosopher, in studying the laws of Nature,acquires more deeply every day the conviction that fromtheir abuse alone spring all the evils from which humanityis groaning.”
Dr. Menville de Ponsan
(Histoire de la Femme; Vol. III., p. 3).
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WOMAN FREE.
I.
Source of the Light that cheers this later day,
Science calm moves to spread her sovereign sway;
Research and Reason, ranged on either hand,
Proclaim her message to each waiting land;
In truths whose import stands but part revealed,
Till man befit himself those truths to wield;
Since to high Knowledge duties high belong,
As to the poet’s power the task of worthy song.
II.
And man, from every stage of slow degree,
Amendment for his previous rule may see;
His keener conscience in our fuller time
Perceives the whilom careless act a crime,
Or finds some fancied fault to progress tend,—
By wiser vision traced to truer end;
Till, growing shrewder in the growing light,
We know no lack of good but our own lack of sight.
2
III.
Thus, sad at first, we mark each evil deed,
Of ignorance or will, bear fatal seed
Of suffering to others in its train,—
The guileless share its penalty of pain,—
And man’s worst misery ofttimes is brought
By trespass he himself nor did nor thought;
Austere the fiat, yet therefrom we learn
A purer life to frame, lest myriads mourn in turn.